This invention relates to grooming products and more specifically to brushes that remove hair, lint, etc. from clothing and promote grooming by emitting ionized air directed to the clothing being brushed.
However common experience indicates that removing lint, hair, and the like from clothing by conventional brushing is not always successful. For example, static electricity may tend to bind hairs, lint, and other small debris to the surface of clothing. Although brushing one""s clothing can mechanically remove some lint, hair, or other particles from the clothing surface, the brushing does not provide any conditioning of the clothing. Too often the lint and other material on the clothing is simply mechanically repositioned.
It is known in the art to produce an air flow electro-kinetically by directly converting electrical power into a flow of air without mechanically moving components. One such system is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,789,801 to Lee (1988), depicted herein in simplified form as FIGS. 1A and 1B. Lee""s system 10 provides a first array of small area (xe2x80x9cminisectionalxe2x80x9d) electrodes 20 is spaced-apart symmetrically from a second array of larger area (xe2x80x9cmaxisectionalxe2x80x9d) electrodes 30, with a high voltage (e.g., 5 KV) pulse generator 40 coupled between the two arrays. Generator 40 outputs high voltage pulses that ionize the air between the arrays, producing an air flow 50 from the minisectional array toward the maxisectional array results. The high voltage field present between the two arrays can release ozone (O3), which can advantageously safely destroy many types of bacteria if excessive quantities of ozone are not released.
Unfortunately, Lee""s tear-shaped maxisectional electrodes are relatively expensive to fabricate, most likely requiring mold-casting or extrusion processes. Further, air flow and ion generation efficiency is not especially high using Lee""s configuration.
There is a need for a brush that can not only brush away lint, hair, etc. from clothing and other material, but provide a measure of cleaning and/or conditioning as well. Preferably such brush should subject the material being brushed to an ion flow to promote cleaning and grooming.
The present invention provides such a grooming brush.
The present invention provides a brush whose body includes a handle portion and a head portion defining at least one vent and including projecting bristles. More preferably, the head portion upperside will define at least one air intake vent and the head portion underside defines at least one ionized air outlet vent.
Contained within the brush body is a battery-operated ionizer unit with DC battery power supply. The ionizer unit includes DC:DC inverter that boosts the battery voltage to high voltage, and a pulse generator that receives the high voltage DC and outputs high voltage pulses of perhaps 10 KV peak-to-peak, although high voltage DC could be used instead of pulses. The unit also includes an electrode assembly unit comprising first and second spaced-apart arrays of conducting electrodes, the first array and second array being coupled, respectively, preferably to the positive and negative output ports of the high voltage pulse generator.
The electrode assembly preferably is formed using first and second arrays of readily manufacturable electrode types. In one embodiment, the first array comprises wire-like electrodes and the second array comprises xe2x80x9cUxe2x80x9d-shaped electrodes having one or two trailing surfaces. In an even more efficient embodiment, the first array includes at least one pin or cone-like electrode and the second array is an annular washer-like electrode. The electrode assembly may comprise various combinations of the described first and second array electrodes. In the various embodiments, the ratio between effective area of the second array electrodes to the first array electrodes is at least about 20:1.
The high voltage pulses create an electric field between the first and second electrode arrays. This field produces an electro-kinetic airflow going from the first array toward the second array, the airflow being rich in ions and in ozone (O3). Ambient air enters the brush head via air intake vent(s), and ionized air (with ozone) exits the brush through outlet vent(s) in the bristle portion of the head. However, in practice if only one vent is present, it suffices as both an intake and an outlet vent. Preferably a visual indicator is coupled to the ionizer unit to visually confirm to a user when the unit is ready for ionizing operation, an when ionization is actually occurring.
Clothing or other material brushed with the bristles is subjected to a gentle flow of ionized air from the outlet vent(s). The brushed material soon takes on a more conditioned appearance, compared to material groomed with an ordinary lint-type brush. The ozone emissions can kill many types of germs and bacteria that may be present on the clothing and can deodorize the clothing surface.
Other features and advantages of the invention will appear from the following description in which the preferred embodiments have been set forth in detail, in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.